For most of the area’s high school cross country teams, the first race action they would see would take place on the same course that, two months from now, will host the Section III championships.
So the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational meant plenty for all of its participants as a preview of what was to come. In the girls portion, West Genesee competed in Race 2, while Jordan-Elbridge was in Race 1 and Marcellus was in Race 4.
West Genesee’s girls would, in fact, win Race 2 with 41 points to Baldwinsville’s 50. Emily Young led the way, taking fourth place in 19 minutes, 35.5 seconds, with Carly Benson claiming sixth place in 19:46.3 as those two had top-five efforts in the team standings.
To hang on, though, the Wildcats needed top-20 finishes from Mia Mitchell, Hannah Craybas and Liz Morey, and got them as Mitchell was ninth in the team standings (11th overall) in 21:05.4, Craybas posted 21:14.4 for 11th in the team event and Morey was 13th among team runners in 21:34 flat. Taylor Rech (22:06.7), Mikeayla DeJesus (22:07.6) and Faith Knox (22;25.5) also had top-30 finishes.
Marcellus was fourth in a 10-team field in Race 4, where Jamesville-DeWitt prevailed. Morgan Gould led the Mustangs, finishing 15th overall (13th in the team standings) in 22:16.7, two spots ahead of Maggie Strempel’s 22:31 flat. Madeline Caron was 27th in the team race in 23:24.1 as Carolyn Carlic posted 23:38.4.
J-E was eighth in girls Race 1 out of 14 sides, with reigning national champion Fayetteville-Manlius on top. Amid all the Hornets, the Eagles’ Theresa Dristle still finished 17th in 21:59.4, with Madison Daly taking 41st place in 24:06.6. Hannah Fincher was 45th in 24:14.3 as Olivia Minikheim (25:38.2) and Kendall Shaw (26:32.6) followed.
Moving to the boys portion of the VVS Invitational, West Genesee finished second in Race 2 with 58 points, trailing only Baldwinsville’s total of 35 points. But the Wildcats’ Sean Byrnes did better than any of the Bees’ runners as his time of 17:07.6 was runner-up behind Homer’s Grant Stokoe, who won in 17:05.1.
Matt Bartolotta also contended for WG as he finished fourth in 17:09.4, but B’ville had all of its five best runners within the top 11, while the Wildcats had to wait for its third runner until Tony Gettino crossed the line in 15th place in 18:02.5. Nathan Couse was 17th in 18:13.7 as Patrick Trivison (18:35.2) beat out Paul Stannard (18:41.6) for 22nd place, with Kyle Jenkins 30th (18:54.4) and Jack Richards 31st (18:55.4).
On its way to a sixth-place finish in Race 4, the Marcellus boys saw Joe Riccardi just miss the top 10, settling for 12th place in 17:50.1. Ethan Mosure made his way to 19th place in 18:16.9 as Charles Donovan was 45th in 19:27.5, two spots ahead of Grayson Hoag (19:29.4) as Kyle Stottler finished in 19:55.5.
J-E was fourth in Race 1 (again with F-M on top) as Westhill-Bishop Ludden got to 10th place. For the Eagles, Sean Dristle had the best effort, taking 15th place overall with a time of 18:14.3, while Ethan Kinney was 28th in 19:07.6. Logan Kinney earned 47th place in 19:45.8, with Derek Quigley (19:54,7) just ahead of Matt Sheldon (19:55.2) at the line.
The Warriors had Jacob Roberts take 50th place overall (42nd in the team standings) with a clocking of 19:50.3. Mike Ferrara, in 19:59.6, was one spot ahead of James Coon, who posted 19:59.9. Angelo Carr finished in 20:45.6.
West Genesee had started its Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division slate last Wednesday when it took on Liverpool at Longbranch Park, and the Wildcats lost both sides of that meet to the Warriors, the boys by a narrow 26-29 margin, the girls by a 19-39 margin.
WG knew that Liverpool’s boys team had graduated three stars from its 2015 state championship team – Steve Schulz, Ty Brownlow and Josh Hickmott. Still, the Warriors’ Nathan Reeves won the individual race in 16:54 as Byrnes got second place in 17:03 and Bartolotta finished third in 17:13.
Liverpool grabbed the next two spots with Cullen McLaughlin (17:26) and Tom Praschunus (17:28) before Gettino gained sixth place 17:31. Couse was eighth, in 17:51, and Trivison (18:09) finished 10th, but the Warriors still held on as Nick Brancato was seventh (17:50) and Carter Rodriguez ninth (17:54).
Young led the WG girls with a third-place time of 19:28, but that was behind Liverpool’s Jenna Schulz, who won in a girls course-record 18:31 over teammate Madison Neuner (18:34). Benson claimed sixth place in 20:08 as Mitchell (20:56) and Craybas (21:04) also had top-10 finishes.
